Valco Melton India showcased its adhesive dispensing for corrugated box manufacturing at the IndiaCorr Expo, held from 28 – 30 October at the India Expo Mart in Greater Noida. The company had on display its extrusion equipment for flexo-folder gluers as well as its inspection equipment for applying glues, which makes sure the boxes are made properly.
Every box is 100% inspected before it actually leaves the flexo-folder gluer machine, said Rod Blanton, International Sales manager – Asia Pacific at Valco Melton.
“It’s my first time here and it’s been very busy. I’ve been pleased with the amount of traffic we’ve seen. A lot of customers, a lot of new technology. And just excited to see everybody here and traveling again and working shows again. The reception to the products has been great,” he added.
Valco Melton has been a leader in the corrugated box adhesive dispensing arena, Blanton told Packaging South Asia. “We have a lot of existing customers coming to see us. We’re working with a lot of the OEMs and saying hello to a lot of them that we don’t get a chance to see. It’s quite interesting to see all of the new people and the old friends. It’s been a very good experience,” he said.
The corrugated industry in India is seeing a lot of movement towards higher speed machines, more efficiency, more automation, he said, adding, Valco Melton is in a good position because that’s what its equipment does – it helps make existing corrugated manufacturers run faster, run more efficient, save on adhesives, save on other raw materials. “We find ourselves positioned well for the expansion and the growth and the consolidation also that we see coming in the Indian corrugated market,” Blanton said.
Trend-wise, sustainability is obviously what everybody’s striving for right now, he added, saying Valco Melton has positioned itself quite well in that regard. If you look at packaging as a whole, the idea is to get away from a lot of plastics and that brings us to more paper-type materials. “Valco has always been positioned in a place where we work with paper converters. And by that, I mean, anytime you take a piece of paper, converting it into something else – whether it be a box, whether it be an envelope, whether it be a carton, Valco has systems for all of these types of industries,” he asserted.
Palletizing, for instance, is one segment where the company is trying to help get rid of the shrink wrap that goes around a lot of pallets and put the skid resistance onto the boxes to help with sustainability. “That’s something that we’re doing quite well all over Southeast Asia and we see it growing here in the Indian market as well,” Blanton said.
Valco Melton, he added, is very happy to be a part of this niche industry, and a big part of the growth moving forward. The company is involved with various associations in India and all over the globe. “We’re opening offices all over the globe so that we can make sure we are there for our customers all around Asia Pacific and other markets globally. You are going to see a lot of expansion from Valco Melton offices in the coming years, particularly in Asia,” he concluded.
